Building a strong and inclusive studio culture in a virtual world

A working environment that encourages creativity and collaboration is essential for any animation and VFX studio to succeed. While we continue to invest in technological developments that enable us to go to where the talent is and allow them to work how and where they want, we are incredibly conscious of the work that needs to also be invested in building culture and communication to support this way of working. We need to ensure that our global talent can not only thrive creatively but also feel supported outside of work.

Work environments flourish and culture is built when people connect. This was challenged during the pandemic with enforced lockdowns. More than two years on from the start of the pandemic working from home is now more common than ever before within the industry. Having the technology in place to deliver work remotely is one thing, building a studio culture in a hybrid working environment is a separate challenge altogether.

We’ve been working with a hybrid or virtual set-up since 2016, establishing ourselves as a 100% virtual capable studio soon after. For us this meant having studios that were not technology dependent (the technology was off site in secure data centers), allowing us to flexibly grow our offices as places of collaboration where teams could come together. This means we’ve been well equipped to expand our team and grow beyond our physical studio space with remote hirings. We hired 200 people across 20 different countries during the Covid pandemic when many studios began to downscale. More and more VFX and animation artists are starting their careers outside of a studio, and it’s crucial that these onboarded employees feel supported, no matter where they are based.

At Jellyfish Pictures, we’ve achieved this, in part, by encouraging a culture in which staff members are free to speak honestly and openly about any mental health problems they may be experiencing. Internally, our senior team recently undertook a course with ‘Mental Health England’ to become better equipped to provide mental health support in the workplace – remote or otherwise. We’ve established dedicated support teams that can help employees locate resources and can liaise with managers to adjust workflows when needed.

Beyond this, we’re working closely with The Film and TV Charity, supporting their ‘The Whole Picture Toolkit’ initiative to provide our industry with information and resources that will help us further embed wellbeing practices into our productions.

We’ve always been keen to take on up-and-coming talent, and in many cases, we’re an artist’s first big role within the industry. Supporting that, we have a vastly experienced senior team that not only takes the creative lead on projects but helps our team develop their skills along the way. This requires even more work when people are onboarded remotely.

Our preference is for a hybrid way of working and we believe strongly where possible there are huge benefits from face to face collaboration and being in the studio. Our technology enables easy flexibility so that where ever our people work they have the same experience both technically and creatively.

At Jellyfish Pictures, we’ve operated with cloud-based platforms that have allowed our artists to create to the same standard as they would within a studio. We’ve worked closely with Microsoft Azure, Nvidia, Teradici, Hammerspace and other key tech companies to establish an infrastructure that creates a harmonious distributed workflow and workforce since 2016. Most importantly the tech we have in place ensures all the content we work on is 100% secure where ever our artists are working, passing all the TPN and other security protocols so important to all our clients such as Netflix, Disney and Universal.

Not having the right technology in place to transfer work between office and home can interrupt workflows and leave teams creatively frustrated. Being able to scale is vital for taking on VFX and Animation work. We want to ensure that whether an artist is based in India or at our London or Sheffield studio, they can spend more time collaborating and less time stressing about technical issues.

Artists in the past have been tethered to working within studios spaces, being surrounded by heavy, and loud, infrastructure. Instead, we’ve aimed to use technology in a way that enables, rather than inhibits, a more blended approach to working. All our technology resides in secure tier one data centres (in our “private cloud”) or in the public cloud.

As we look to the future and plan for some exciting projects, we’ll continue to adopt this people-first approach. Since 2001, our talent has been the crux of our development, and this remains true as we operate in this hybrid environment. Our investments in technology and our push for training have helped us create an environment where new onboarded employees can feel welcome.

Hybrid working environments have enabled us to access new sources of talent, but it’s not as simple as just employing people anywhere and leaving them to their own devices – you need the technology to allow them to operate seamlessly and with no latency, and the culture to support, communicate and create an environment of inclusivity. As studio owners, we need to work doubly hard at building a culture that supports both at home and in the studio working. The best of both worlds is very tricky to get right, but those studios who work hard at enabling hybrid and flexible working are the ones that will thrive.

 Phil Dobree is founder of VFX and animation house Jellyfish Pictures